Sencha Tea – Uptown

After purchasing the local Tea Garden chain, our client got to work rebranding the chain’s six locations to Sencha Tea Bar. First up: the Uptown store in Minneapolis. Our client aimed to put a new spin on the tea business by appealing to a broader audience and increasing traffic during the early morning hours, while allowing guests to experience “your tea, your way.”

Our Approach
We worked closely with management and the design firm Shea, Inc., to bring our client’s vision to life—with a construction schedule that spanned only 12 days! Needless to say, it was full steam ahead at all hours. We worked around the clock to gut all of the store’s public spaces while minimizing disruptions for the building’s residential tenants. From new flooring and lighting to renovated counters and seating, the dated space underwent a total transformation. One of the project’s signature components was the addition of a rotating tea rack over the bar that contains more than 125 different canisters of loose-leaf teas.

The Results
The renovation took place in the spring of 2015, and the store—with a newly sophisticated atmosphere—opened as planned in May 2015. We are proud to say the project was nominated for a Minnesota Shopping Center Association Starr Award, and that we have subsequently renovated and/or rebranded Sencha Tea Bar’s other five locations.